Nations and internationalisme in the era of the "First Globalisation" Flashcards
Syllabus
Dunant, La charité sur les champs de bataille (Charity on the battlefield): presents the resolutions of the international conference in Geneva = one Committee per country, which helps the health services of their respective armies (wearing a white armband with a red cross) = “I have not come to touch the dreaded problem of the legitimacy of war”.
de Coubertin, The Olympic Games: when nations seek to compare themselves in military, industrial (Universal Exhibitions) and literary terms, it is logical that they end up wanting to compare their athletes. Model of English public schools where the sporting spirit is exalted. Need to unify around the practice of sport in general (not one in particular) = to calm relations between the different sporting societies = after a Congress in Paris in 1894, first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.
Zetkin, 1907 in Stuttgart, International Women’s Congress = for socialist women, the right to vote was not the “final goal” as it was for bourgeois women (a stage in the class struggle): it was a social right, justified by the upheavals in economic activity + the struggling proletariat needed women to carry out its projects (they made up a large proportion of workers).
Berger, Our first globalisation, as opposed to what is happening today, the unions of the time were against protectionism (nationalism + higher cost of living for workers) + seeing the global class struggle rather than that of simple national workers = internationalism. They were not against investing capital elsewhere. The problems of internationalism are approached through the prism of alliances and political positions already taken (republicanism, for example, goes against financial aid to the Tsar).
First globalisation
summary
transport and communications revolution
The mid-19th century witnessed a transformative shift in transport and communication, driven by innovations such as the steam engine and fossil fuels. Railways and steam navies became symbols of this era, connecting regions and contributing to the growth of capitalism. The railway, originating in England, France, and Belgium, rapidly expanded worldwide, while steamships revolutionized transoceanic trade, with the volume reaching 80 million tons annually by 1870. The telegraph, another 19th-century invention, facilitated global communication and reshaped the media landscape, enabling nearly instantaneous reporting of “global events.”
The movement of goods and capital
The reduction of transport times, advancements in technology, and the decline of customs tariffs in the 1860s fueled a significant expansion in international trade. Trade multiplied 25-fold between 1800 and 1913, with Western European countries experiencing a rise in goods exports from 9% to over 14% of annual GDP between 1870 and 1913. The telegraph played a crucial role in structuring international markets, contributing to the emergence of world prices and unifying goods and capital markets. The UK, a leading global power, actively promoted free trade, although protectionist sentiments gained traction in Germany and France.
The era of mass migration
The transport revolution facilitated mass migration in the second half of the 19th century. This period marked a surge in both short-term and long-distance movements of people across borders, seas, and oceans. The most notable transoceanic migration involved millions of Europeans settling in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. The movement of people extended beyond the Atlantic area, with significant migratory flows in Asia and the Indian Ocean. The abolition of slavery and the rise of indentured labor reflected the coexistence of “free” and constrained migrations, contributing to the expansion of global capitalism. The emergence of migration control measures and the development of passports were limited during this period, with increasing sorting of populations based on geographical and racial origin.
The “First Globalisation” and Cotton: A Global Merchandise
1.4 Cotton, Global Merchandise
The textile industry, a symbol of industrialization’s early stages, remained a vital sector of the capitalist economy in the early 1900s. The evolution of cotton, a key raw material, exemplifies the extent of globalization during this period. The Civil War disrupted the cotton supply structure, leading to a crisis and the need to cultivate cotton in new regions globally. The rise of new textile centers outside the UK, such as in India, Brazil, and Egypt, marked a shift in cotton production. Employment contracts, including sharecropping and harvest pledges, transformed the rural workforce engaged in cotton cultivation. The UK’s role in increasing international trade through tariff advocacy and the export of capital contributed to the globalization of the cotton industry.
Economic regulation and cooperation
Economic Regulation and Cooperation
International cooperation in the face of global challenges
- The expansion of capitalism and the shrinking of global space in the late 19th century.
- Emergence of challenges necessitating global cooperation.
- Forms of international cooperation closely tied to power relations between states and empires.
The internationalist spirit
- 19th-century as a period of the advent of nation-states, wars of independence, and borders.
- Internationalist spirit expressed in scientific, political, cultural, and sporting circles.
- Efforts to standardize spatio-temporal landmarks for a connected world.
- Metrics and time standardization discussed in international conferences (e.g., meter conference in 1875, Greenwich meridian in 1884).
International organizations and regulation efforts
- Creation of International Telegraph Union and Universal Postal Union in 1865 and 1874.
- Universal standards to streamline global circulations issued by these institutions.
- Rise of “proto-“ international organizations, prefiguring multilateral bodies of the 20th century.
- Legal codification of rules of international intellectual property in 1886.
Technical and scientific cooperation
Technical and Scientific Cooperation
The emergence of international law
- Transformation of people’s rights in the 17th and 18th centuries.
- Vienna Congress in 1815 as a starting point for international legal principles.
- Regulation of the warrior phenomenon and humanitarian consciousness.
- Founding of the International Red Cross in 1863 and the first Geneva Convention in 1864.
Pacifist movements and international organizations
- Rise of an internationalist liberal current in the 1860s.
- Founding of the International League for Peace in Geneva in 1867.
- International conventions in The Hague in 1899 and 1907 to ban weapons and promote arbitration.
The right of interference and humanitarian interventions
- Humanitarian interventions in response to Ottoman atrocities in the 19th century.
- Birth of the right of interference rooted in the 19th-century humanitarian arguments.
- Reluctance of European powers to intervene due to new continental and imperial rivalries.
The emergence of international law
Global Public Health**
- Movement of people and animals at the end of the 19th century creating conditions for pandemics.
- Epidemics and epizootic diseases becoming global scourges in the 19th century.
Common Diseases in the 19th Century
- Yellow fever, cholera, and plague as common diseases.
- Cholera pandemic origins and the identification of the cholera bacillus.
- The role of Alexandre Yersin in identifying the plague bacillus in 1894.
Quarantine and Public Health Debates
- Concerns about contagion and quarantine measures during the 1860s.
- Supervision of hajj as an early example of health consultation by major European powers.
- Debates on quarantine, contagion, and the health issues of the pilgrimage to Mecca.
International Coordination in Public Health
- States’ scattered reactions to global health threats.
- Coordination efforts among European powers in identifying strategic places to contain epidemics.
- Founding of the International Office of Public Hygiene in 1907, a precursor to the World Health Organization.
Circulation of Epizootic Diseases
- Scourge of epizootic diseases and agricultural diseases in the 19th century.
- Impact on countries like Ireland (Great Famine), French vineyards (phylloxera), and southern Africa (rinderpest).
Internationalist movements
summary
Political internationalism
Political Internationalisms
- Left-wing Internationalism (1820-1830s)
- Giuseppe Mazzini’s role in advocating internationalism based on the defense of national ideas, free determination of peoples, and solidarity against absolutist powers.
- Movements like Young Italy (1831) and Young Europe (1834) aiming to unite activists of national causes.
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International Workers’ Association (AIT) and Marxist Internationalism (1864)
- Formation of AIT to unite workers across countries for the defense of their conditions and against bourgeois states.
- Marx’s involvement and the subsequent split, leading to the dissolution of AIT in 1876.
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Libertarian Anarchist Internationalism (1870s)
- Emergence of a second left-wing internationalism with a focus on libertarian anarchism.
- Lack of a structured international organization, reliance on propaganda by fact, and the impact of anarchist attacks in Europe.
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Socialist International (1889)
- Formation of the second Socialist International in 1889, bringing together political parties with national structures.
- Participation of notable socialist figures in congresses, advocating internationalist and pacifist ideals.
religious internationalism
Religious Internationals
- Protestant, Catholic, and Islamic Missionary Activities (19th Century)
- Protestant evangelism’s expansion in industrial cities and colonial spaces.
- Paradoxical evolution of Catholicism with a decline in temporal influence but a strengthening of spiritual power.
- Islam’s missionary actions, especially in Sahelian Africa, and the Ottoman Empire’s emphasis on pan-Islamic identity.
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World Parliament of Religions (1893)
- Ecumenical gathering in Chicago, where representatives of major monotheistic religions express solidarity against secularization.
- Emergence of new rationalist and positivist ideologies, including spiritualism and positivism in Brazil.
European anti-semitism
European Anti-Semitism
- Evolution of Anti-Semitism (19th Century)
- Shift from Christian and medieval anti-Judaism to biological and racial anti-Semitism.
- Accusations of Jewish economic power and the rise of exclusive nationalisms.
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Responses to Anti-Semitism
- Solidarity actions in the 1850s-1860s, including the Universal Israelite Alliance’s efforts to fund schools.
- The intensification of persecution in the 1880s-1890s and the founding of the Bund by Jewish workers challenging philanthropic control.
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Jewish Migration and the Dreyfus Case
- Massive migration of Jews from Eastern Europe to Western Europe and the United States after the 1880s.
- The impact of the Dreyfus case (1894) on European Jewish elites, leading to divisions on assimilation, emigration, and the Zionist project.
dates
1817-1824: Cholera pandemic
1820-1920: 55 million migrations, including 33 million to the US
1829-1831: cholera pandemic
1839: First telegraph by Morse
1851: Reuters agency founded
1851: First International Sanitary Conference in Paris
1854: Immaculate Conception
1858: Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes
1860: Cobden-Chevalier treaty
1863: International Committee of the Red Cross
1863: International Telegraph Union
1864: Foundation of the First International
1864: First Geneva Convention
1864: Syllabus and Quanta Cura denounce the “perils of the age
1865: Creation of the Salvation Army
1866: Geneva Congress (International)
1866: installation of transatlantic cables
1866-1881: time taken to cross the Atlantic cut from 10 days to 12 hours
1869: opening of the Suez Canal
1870: Papal infallibility 1865: Cholera epidemic during the pilgrimage to Mecca
1874: General Postal Union
1875: Conference in Paris to promote the use of the metre
1876-1878: Large-scale massacres of Bulgarians by the Ottoman Empire
1880s: invention of refrigerated transport
1880s: first protectionist migration measures
13 March 1881: Assassination of Alexander II
1882: Chinese Exclusion Act
1884: Washington International Conference = Greenwich meridian
1886: Publication of La France Juive, Drumont
1889: Second International
1893: World Parliament of Religions (Chicago)
1894: Sadi Carnot assassinated
1895: Karl Lueger elected mayor of Vienna (anti-Semitic +++)
1896: The Jewish State, Theodore Herzl
1898: International cooperation against anarchist terrorism in Rome
1899: Pacifist conference in The Hague
1903-1905: Kishinev pogroms
1907: Hague pacifist conference
1907: International Office of Public Hygiene in Paris
Personalities
Ferdinand de Lesseps, chief engineer of the Suez Canal
Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph in 1839
Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross in 63/64 and first Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1901
William Gladstone, Liberal, accused Disraeli of failing to act in the Balkans (in the face of atrocities)
Benjamin Disraeli, writer, leader of the Conservative Party and PM from 1874 to 1880 (United Kingdom)
Marx, philosopher and theorist of socialism & communism = historical materialism + Communist Manifesto, 1848 + foundation of the First International in 1864 in London
Engels, economist, also committed to communism + foundation of the First International
Ravachol, French worker and anarchist militant, perpetrator of numerous attacks & guillotined in 1892
Abdulhammid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1908), who tried to promote pan-Islamism
Pius IX, Pope from 1848 to 1878 = loss of the Pope’s temporal power BUT centralisation of dogma around himself (spiritual power +++ with infallibility in 1870)
Bernadette Soubirous, a farmer who saw Mary appear at Lourdes in 1858 = renewed fervour
Wilhelm Marr, German anti-Semitic journalist = founded the “Anti-Semitic League
Edouard Drumont, French anti-Semitic journalist = La France juive, 1886 with Jews as symbols of capitalism (Rothschild)
Karl Lueger, anti-Semitic mayor of Vienna in 1895
Theodore Herzl, leader of Zionism with The Jewish State, 1896 = secular Zionism to ensure the security etc. of the Jewish people
Antoine Rougier, question of the intervention of humanity = by the international community (right of interference = propagation of civilisation in barbaric lands)
notions
Interconnection of the world - telegraph - “free trade imperialism” - mass migrations - “yellow peril” - Greenwich meridian - international humanitarian law - intervention of humanity - pandemic - Workers’ International - anarchism - pan-Islamism - “white international” - anti-Semitism - pogroms
Analyses by historians
Rodogno, the “interventions of humanity” of the European powers are linked to their own frame of reference on fundamental rights, etc. + are aimed at defending certain interests, e.g. the Christians of the East.
